My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Price of life...

Post 26/11 effects:
Resignation of Home minister Shivraj Patil by accepting the moral responsibility for the attack.
Resignation of Bilas Rao Desmukh.
India has seen public outrage from every section of the society.
We have seen Pranab Mukherjee in action like never before.
NIA & UAPA bills which aim to make laws on terror tougher were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 17.
India is might be on the way to declare war against Pakistan.


Serial bomb blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore, Delhi, Assam left a sizeable number of people dead in 2008. According to data, terrorist violence has claimed 20,000 lives in India since 1998. But it seems that our government doesn’t believe in numbers, that’s why only the people victimized in Taj or Oberoi hotel worked as an eye opener for them. Only the attack in South Mumbai was severe enough for the bureaucracy to realize that they are supposed to be responsible (morally or practically) for all these terrorism whether regional or international spreading through out the nation. My question is why so? What if the terrorists wouldn’t target the elite groups in Mumbai? I guess we all know the answer…the lives of aam admi wouldn’t be enough for the government to open their eyes. We need page 3 people to compel the politicians to take responsibility for a mishap. We have seen unforgettable public outrage in Mumbai attack which was missing in the last devastating attacks that took place in the country. This time the elites has realized that even they aren’t safe in India (of course our lives aren’t as valuable as their).

The prudent terrorist knew that they could ransack India by targeting the two hot spots of Mumbai. How many of us were worried about the victims of Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus? Only high profile lives of victims matter here…that’s why when the BMW owners understood the truth that their high profiles doesn’t offer them immunity, they have shown activism in the protest of terrorism.

But all is well is end is well…no matter what the reason is the truth is at the end of the day, ‘civic power’ prevailed.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

'Raj' ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi na mumkin hai!

After a long time last night fortunately my friend had the time & volition to take me out for a movie. Both of us are SRK fans, so without any hesitation we grabbed two tickets of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. I basically had two intentions to watch the film: firstly, after month long declining sensex , rising inflation rate & all devouring terrorism I was craving for a relief & secondly, few days ago I was slothfully surfing through the TV channels & then a news featuring on the channel Zoom, caught my eyes which was saying that if sources to be believed Aditya Chopra has made this new romantic flick to break the image of Raj of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge…from then I was feeling the urge to see RNBDJ.

The film started, I would say in a little hatke manner. You wonder why? Well because in every Yash Raj movie, the first entry of Shahrukh is some thing to watch out for, we all know that. But this film was a ‘trend breaker’ in this matter. The film is like any other boy meets girl story with a touch of over the top melodrama. I would say one word for the film i.e. ‘predictable’!

Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with the review of RNBDJ (why do I? I won’t be paid for that!). But I just want to pen down my opinion regarding few matters which are flouncing inside my brain.

Firstly, how far the film was able to compete with earlier Adi chopra’s historical love story? I would say the film was no way a bit close to the script of DDLJ…the innocence; freshness we witnessed in the script of SRK’s blockbuster was totally absent in RNBDJ. The new Yash Raj flick is a well proven masala mix to lure audience but the weakness of the script was explicit enough.

Secondly, Tujhe dekha to yeh jana sanam or Ruk ja o dil deewane or Mehendi laga ke rakhna is still leave us spell bound. Compare to that Salim sulaiman’s music is in one word: ‘despondent’. In fact the song ‘Phir milenge chalte chalte’ is like the extended part of ‘Dum ta na’ of Om Shanti Om…both pays tribute to legendary bollywood actors! By the time, undoubtedly Shahrukh has excelled in the art of mimicry for sure…

Thirdly, Raj & Simran was the legendary love bird made in Bollywood till date where as on the contrary RNBDJ is a way too far to even touch the elevation they made. Age difference between the 40+ superstar & 19+ fresher is awkwardly clear enough. The charm of friendship between Shahrukh & Kajol somewhere overshadows the clichéd & confusing relationship of Surinder & Tani.

Fourthly, the heroine of the film Anushka Sharma is surely not worth a watch! Her dialogue delivery, expression, body language could not match up to the level created by spontaneous, candid Kajol aka Simran in DDLJ. It would be unfair to both of the ladies to compare them with each other.

Fifthly, here comes the most important factor…how far Shahrukh was successful to destroy his dashy lover boy image Raj…well, overall in RNBDJ King Khan was near to believable as a common man Surinder Sahni of Punjab Power! His body language has been changed with the attire of the character swiftly but some smell of illogicality arouse with the character of Raj…the person who can’t speak his heart out how can he become so over expressive in the form of Raj? But we, as audience of ‘Yash Raj movie’ were intelligent enough to adjust with such small tread mark unreasonableness! But on the whole Surinder was not competent enough to compete with Raj. I agree love is not all about PDA (public display of affection)…but an amount of expression is mandatory in every relationship. The playboy & romantic image of Raj was captivating enough to make the young girls suffer from insomnia till date. I won’t disagree that at one point of time even I longed for a guy like Raj in my life! That was the charm & charisma we have seen eight years ago in Bollywood…but I, as a fan of SRK, as a love-lorn of Raj was a bit dishearten! But it doesn’t mean I love to watch films with heroes of larger than life…but in a stereo typical romantic film some amount of depth & passion is required to be manifested on screen. You can’t create an ordinary & simple love story on screen with the biggest superstar of the nation which has an amateur heroine along with bollywoody melodrama. More over the truth is, the paw of age is now clearly visible on Shahrukh…in this stage he is more convincible as the coach of the woman’s Hockey team instead of the bechara husband who join dance class to woo her lady love. His contemporary Amir Khan is clever enough to switch on to the image of ‘Character Actor’ from typical ‘Romantic hero’.

That’s enough for today, enough criticism of SRK…I’m signing off for now…hum hai rahi pyar ke, phir milenge, chalte chalte! Cheers!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Dubious development

‘Krishi amader bhitti, shilpo amader bhobissot’ (Agriculture is our base & Industry is our future) – the CPI-M led west Bengal state government is said to be run by this motto. In recent Singur melodrama, we have seen the concern of state government for industrial development. If that was to be believed then why they are now contradicting their stand on the shut down of Dunlop Sahaganj factory? The factory had to close down since the automobile companies feeling the heat of global melt down worldwide; the demand of tyres has gone down sharply. The owner Pawan Kumar Ruia is now expecting the grant of loan or capital intensive from state government to boost up the moribund Dunlop factory, which is arguably one of the largest tyre producing factories of India.

It’s obvious that the WB state government isn’t in a condition to finance every other emaciated factory of the state. But Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the ‘sanskriti manoshko’ (cultural) CM of India can spend profuse money on International Film Festival every year but when it comes to the future of over 1200 workers, his government makes hue & cry over limited finance! Cultural interaction is necessary, but he should now realize that hunger-stricken mind can’t relish a good movie. If the government won’t be able to grant the capital required for the reopening of Dunlop factory, it should at least be involve in effective discussion with Ruia to sort out the problem. Every other progressive Bengalis has lend their support with Buddhadeb led government in latest Singur incident but if situation continues this way in Sahaganj, its evident that CPI-M might lose public support in coming Elections.

Every other state criticizes the political frivolity of Bengal these days. If members of left parties say Mamata Banerjee’s demand on the land of Singur is ‘Farcical’ then Trinamul leader says Dunlop is another example of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s ‘Incompetence’! And the blame game continues.

Throbbing factories, Bandh culture, viscous political condition – these now has become synonymous with West Bengal. In spite of that, we know at present there is no other leader except Mr. Bhattacharya to fit the chair of CM. But if he could be able to devote at least half of the impetus he usually spends on IT industry, Films or Kolkata Book fair; on the overall development of the state, then it will be a different picture altogether.

Monday, December 8, 2008

succession of ingratitude

Such rage & apathy among civilians against political corruptions, India have seen never before. Every discussion programmes in news channels, editorial columns of newspapers...all are still crammed with peoples' agitation against political leaders. Wrath against our political system, gratitude for our military force, compassion for the victims, abhorrence for Pakistan's' foster children...we are done with all. But somehow forgot to thank 'Media' for the stupendous duty it served. In these days I came across many people who thinks media popularized the crime for its own business motive. Being a student of mass communication, I wont disagree that media do negatively popularize few things for TRP or circulation...but isn't it unreasonable to blame them? Can you utter in keeping with the dictates of your conscience that your profession isn't corrupted? Naturally media industry is also run by business motive...but all the people who loves to be indulge in criticism should remember that journalists at least do something for the country, although run by business motive but its still a public service medium.

I have seen quite a few blogs in the last few days which says that our children's innocence is decomposed by media during these terror attacks... I wanna know in which way does media sensationalised the whole dreadful drama? How many of you have an idea about the effort journalists had to put in to wrung out the real story in front of you? You glutted the reality media brought out into your TV set or in your morning newspaper, but after the curtain dropped you started to censure the same complying people for the service they provided. How many people raised their voice when the wise & frugal (who arranged his vacation in abroad from the fund i.e allotted for sports development) Sports minister Subhas Chakroborty abused media? How many people criticised the security guards & West Bengal police when journalists were beaten by them at Indira Bhaban? The people who point their finger at the credibility of media, should realise that working in this profession isn't a cake walk...channels & newspapers of the world over were presented in Mumbai along with the military force & police through out the ordeal...its because of them we got to know about our unfortunate near & dear ones who were victimized in Mumbai. Is it equitable to blame media for every other thing you come across? Don't recriminate media,if you cant give eulogy of which it is worthy.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

India- the coral island!

Post Mumbai terror attack when everybody is busy in discussing the news of resignation of Shivraj Patil & every other layman is want to be a part of Anti Terrorism Squad ,I wonder why we are underestimating our own terrorists who are domesticated by the political leaders? We should not underrate the power of such obedient party puppets who are involved in popularizing race hatred within Indian Territory. After 61 year of independence we still respect the past tradition of India & following the path of Hindu Muslim enmity. A country can’t blame other country for terrorism when its own people are talented enough in the veil of saffron to plant bombs to kill as many Muslims as possible. Recently a transcript of telephone conversation presented in the court where it confirmed that Pragya Singh Thakur, a member of various right-wing organization & a Hindu extremist who took sanyas in 2006,said to one of the accused of the Malegaon blast: ‘Why did so few people die? Why didn't you park the bike in a crowded area?' Well, in this matter our dear Pakistani terrorists are much smarter in the choice of location than these party followers. Why don’t the leaders of these political parties arrange some special training & grooming classes for these aspiring terrorists to enhance their skills & talents like other national terrorist companies? These right wing party members should be more careful in the choice of parking place next time to plant bomb for promoting Hindutva movement! Because at this time when the general election is round the corner they can’t afford to compromise in planning & plotting as a part of new age pre-election agenda!

But these devotee & loyal members such as Swami Amritananda alias Dayanand Pandey, Sameer Kulkarni, Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu & many more has another alternative job option as well. After Mumbai attack, if our Govt will realise that we should now move on from the style of Munna Bhai & start following Ram Gopal Varma's formula then these Hindu extremist party puppets can be sent to Indian border with our Army & I'm sure they will do better job than the commandos. After all, these right wing members can’t dream of more Muslims to kill! And if we send Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit to provide the RDX, the war will be a sure success for us!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Denudation of security

This morning I got a sms from Air tel. Which goes like this: 'Forgiving terrorists is left to God. But fixing their appointment with God is our responsibility' sent by Indian Army. Indian Army is the third largest standing army in the world. In spite of that it took 59 hours for the 200 commandos of NSG, Indian Navy, Indian Army & Mumbai Police to won the battle in Mumbai? Is it our commando's failure? Ain't they trained enough to fight with such terror attack? Indian Army has proved their competency in 1965, 1971 or in 1999 but despite that, India had to face may be the longest terror drama of the world. Why so? They got the whole lay out of the hotels,they had the required weapons(in fact the terrorists were showing their parsimony in the usage of bullet because they dint have enough stock of ammunition's),they had the man power...then what went so wrong that they had to take so many time? The problem is in the whole internal structure! Our commandoes had to wait for their orders...Mumbai attack is the failure of our bureaucracy not of the Army. They are inescapably bound to the orders of the bureaucracy. Indian Army is 'trained to die for the country & trained to save the civilians' but in emergency despite having all potentialities & possibilities they have to wait for the orders to come. Our respected politicians can never think beyond mere narrow party politics & this is the reason that terrorists have the guts to come down India for vacations almost in every other month. If this month is Delhi then the next month will be Bangalore or Assam or Jaipur. When will it end? A 9/11 was enough for USA...I hope 27/11 was enough for us too!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Life in a land of aversion

Mumbai - a city never sleeps, Mumbai - a city of dream, Mumbai - a city of glam & money. We are supposed to think about Mumbai like these a way back. But now Mumbai has become a city of violence & paramountcy of The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thakre. His strategy to steal the Maharashtrian vote bank end up spreading out anti socialism in the city. The man has been arrested after a migrant laborer from Uttar Prades killed by his sena, thereafter as a result another migrant boy Rahul Raj took up the gun in protest & shot dead by police. But there was no stop for Raj Thakre in spite of behind the bars. His Sena continuing the series of hatred & antipathy...& has made the city of dream a furnace of politics. Still in the city, migrants are not safe, they are still fighting with the nava nirman sena on their rights on Mumbai. But why do they have to prove anything? It was said that India is a land of 'unity in diversity'...we don’t have our leaders of such idealism & principles these days,I agree...but these types of anti national politics is not acceptable. Even in West Bengal we have seen the leaders’ takes advantage of situation to secure their vote bank (take Singur or Lalgar issue as example) but they don’t try to rouse such demolishing politics among people. Being a kolkatan I can say that approximately over 45% of the people live here whose mother tongue isn’t Bengali...but we have never shown any antipathy to them. Is it a mandatory condition for any body to live in Mumbai that he/she has to speak in Marathi? If situation goes like this who will take up the security of migrants in Mumbai? We need answer...

Sunday, November 23, 2008

small screen's lose n big screen's gain

Have you seen Prachi Desai in the period of post Rock on!? In the recent award ceremony at Kolkata where she received her first award as Best Actresses for Rock on! she was more than happy. You wonder why? Because, post Rock on! we can hardly say that her life is rocking....she has only one film in hand(with Govinda....poor girl!) , Kasam se has also gone out of her hand now, except the Ad of Tata Indicom she doesn't have many more endorsements to do....then why it seems like she is very happy? Because she is the only small screen bahu whose film scored a six at the theatre. We wonder, why is these small screen popular actors failed to make it on big screen? Why don't we have another SRK or vidya balan who can successfully make a long way from the small screen to the bollywood? These days Television is as popularised as Films....even big names like Big B, SRK,Salman are coming back to small screen. But why the Television actors are not appreciates on big screen? Take Rajeev Khandelwal starrer Amir for example, although the film was critically acclaimed but nobody noticed Rajeev. That may be because the tag of 'Sujal' of Kahin to hoga is still stuck to him. That is the same story everywhere. Can you imagine Tulsi doing a Kajra re? Or imagine Parvati doing a Pappu cant dance? Awful, no? Yes this is the reason...these actors are so overexposed on the Television that its tough for the audience to accept 'em in a new avatar. Moreover Television actors lacks the glam quotient that big screen required. Ronit Roy can be the 'Big B' of the small screen but he is surely not worth a watch on big screen. But there is one actor who is surely underrated here....he is Hussain K. The guy has got everything...he has great physique, he can dance, he can act, he has a big fan following...but for an unknown reason he cant get his worth till now. Even Shamak Davar's comment on Yeh hai Jalwa made no difference in his career graph. We pity for him! Actors like Shweta Tiwari, Ronit Roy, Rohit Roy comes & go from the big screen unobservedly. It proves that its tough for the actors who bring into our drawing room every day to shed their character image.

Pocket friendly Fashion labels

Fashion industries can also feel the global downturn. It is evident from the past that Indian fashion designers failed to attract Indian buyers except the creamy layers. Although the designer collections usually do good business abroad but the domestic buyers are always overlooked & neglected by the designers. But by the time designers have understood that its important to raise demand within the country as well. Therefore by keeping in mind the profile of average domestic customers the established designers tie up with retail chains to widen their base. That's a good sign we must say! These days we are aware of fashion & trends no doubt in that, but while tie up with retail brands like shopper's stop, west side or Levi's the designers should keep in mind the characteristics of young India. I mean we cant use the local street as ramp for god sake!
Its definitely a severe step taken by the established designers. In our country we cant see the style of Paris or Milan on street because its hard to find the right attire in budget. But with the ramp meets brand tie up we surely hope to have some awesome cloths at our retail stores which are not identically same (either in terms of material or in terms of design) with each other. Who knows may be next time you can see me in Tarun Tahiliani's outfit!
Cheers!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Chetan Bhagat - the bollywood author

I'm a fan of Chetan Bhagat. I truly believe that the man has made a difference in the style of Indian story telling. All three novels of him are best sellers, in fact people are still crazy about Five point someone. This year in Kolkata Book fair in the stall of Rupa Publishers I found lot of young men & women were heading for his first novel. That's amazing! That shows his charisma! I loved his third novel Three Mistakes of my life even more. The way he associate earthquake of Gujarat in his story or the way he described communalism is truly commendable but I must say that his novels are becoming little monotonous now. The same male protagonists, the same shy, introvert,looser boy meets bold,beautiful,intelligent girl has become identical with all his novels. Not only that he always end up giving the climax of his story a melodramatic bollywood touch. It's evident from all his three novels that he loves Bollywood movies....so does we! But we really want some variation in Bhagat's story. He is the new age author no doubt...we book lovers love him to no end...but lets be fair in judgement, we don't want another Yash Chopra or Karan Johar in Chetan Bhagat! But surely Chetan Bhagat can do it better than Aravind Adiga. The white tiger - written by the winner of the booker of the booker award 2008 Aravind Adiga, failed to do a good business in India although the book is declared to be a best seller in abroad. Three reason can be traced behind the success of Chetan Bhagat, they are; 1) Pocket friendly price, 2) He use the lingo we use in the real life(although for this he has been criticized many times by the critics ; but who cares for 'em anyway?) & 3) We can associate with the characters of his novels.

But when it comes to talk about Chetan Bhagat as a scriptwriter we can hardly say anything positive, after the release of Hello! We, the fan of Bhagat's writing expected a lot from his debut film as a scriptwriter, but after watching the movie based on the best seller One Night @ The Call Center we were at our wit's end! But still we keep our fingers crossed for the movie Three Idiots which will be based on Five Point Someone.

Cheers!!

New age of Dostana

Have you seen the movie Dostana? If not then go buy a ticket of the film & grab the seat to feel the experience of a new age of Dostana. You should watch the film for three reasons ; 1) To see Abhishek Bachchan's Gay act, 2) To watch John abraham-the real eye candy of the movie & 3) To experience the use of metrosexualism as a mean to lure audience to the cine hall. The film starts with the peppy number by Visahl n Sekhar, Shut up n bounce where you can hardly notice Shilpa Shetty's hot bod. Ask why? Because it is John and his sun tanned physique which steal the show. The film scored a six in the dream sequence where Abhishek told a story to Priyanka's aunty to explain how he & John met. Abhishek's gay acting in that dream sequence made the audience to burst out in laugh. It was expected that Big B's son would be the last one to act gay. We all know that Bollywood Industry is hardly dominated by the actresses. The actresses are either use as showpieces by wearing designer skimpy clothes & dance to sexy numbers to titillate the audience or some actresses with strong acting potential picked up for parallel cinemas. But film like Dostana proved that Commercial Bollywood films now don't need sexy heroins any more, our masculine hunks can be good enough. Although the trend setter of metrosexualism in undoubtedly Shahrukh Khan - hands down! Remember the bath tab sequence in Don? Or the ad which aired few years back, SRK in bath tab with few sexy heroins of him? He was the trend setter of male item number as well. Dard e disco undoubtedly gave complex to even Rakhi Sawant! But talking about Dostana the scene where Abhishek & John kissed to say 'sorry' to Priyanka grabbed our eyeballs. Karan Johar's production has given conservative India a new turn. Kissing scenes in Hindi films are no more to talk about. But two men are kissing- is surely worth a watch in India! It seems from last few Hindi films that being Gay is trendy at last. Take Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion, Page 3, Farhan Akhtar's Honeymoon travel's pvt ltd,Sanjay Suri starrer My brother Nikhil as examples. But why women in same sex relationships are not celebrated? Except Deepa Mehta's Fire or a big flop Girl friend, we hardly have movies on lesbian relations. In a country where 37% of the people are homosexual why don't film makers make movie on lesbianism? It was found that Indian heroins are quite apprehensive in portraying same sex relationship on screen. But we surely want to see some bold movies in the coming years on women in same sex relationship.


Cheers!!